A highly impersonal view <grin/> that is all my fault and nobody else's
responsibility...
I think Jason has captured this pretty nicely as a first take. I would edit
the proposal a bit, as follows:
x.y Use data formats that support the application of these guidelines.
Different markup languages, multimedia formats, interface standards, etc.,
have different levels of support for accessibility. It is important to use
technologies that allow the greatest possible application of accessibility
requirements, and that are supported by available software.
Techniques:
Languages that allow the author to meet the checkpoints for marking up
content (for example have support for text alternatives to non-text elements,
differentiate between structural markup and presentation hints, etc) should
be preferred to "fixed form" languages.
W3C Recommendations are reviewed to ensure that they provide support for
accessibility, and software that allows for authoring of accessible content
as well as presentation of content in an accessible way is often widely
available by the time a W3C specification becomes a recommendation.
And maybe some of the more specific poiint by point stuff Jason has, and some
of the rationale he had at the beginning of his message.
cheers
Charles McCN
Jason wrote...
[snip]
<dt>Give preference to data formats and software protocols which support
the application of these guidelines.
<dd>
<p>Markup languages, multimedia formats, software interface standards,
etc., vary in the extent to which they support the requirements of
accessibility. In choosing which technologies to use, it is therefore
important to take into account the extent to which they facilitate
application of these guidelines. Content developers should thus favour,
where practicable, solutions which
<ol>
<li>permit text equivalents to be associated with auditory and graphical
content, and multimedia presentations, if applicable, to be synchronized
with text equivalents (guideline 1);
<li>allow the logical structure of the content to be defined,
independently of presentation (guideline 2);
<li>enable the content creator to specify a consistent presentational
style (guidelines 3 and 4);
<li>support device-independent input events (guideline 5);
<li>are documented in published specifications and can be implemented by
user agent and assistive technology developers;
<li>are supported by user agents and assistive technologies
</ol>
<p>Note: to satisfy these requirements, a combination of different
technologies will ordinarily be required.
</dd>
This isn't exactly polished,, draft-quality material and I am offering it
not for inclusion in the next draft, but as a possible line of thinking
that might be discussed and developed further if members of the working
group consider this appropriate.
Opinions herein are my own, personal views.
--
Charles McCathieNevile mailto:charles@w3.org phone: +61 (0) 409 134 136
W3C Web Accessibility Initiative http://www.w3.org/WAI
Location: I-cubed, 110 Victoria Street, Carlton VIC 3053, Australia
September - November 2000:
W3C INRIA, 2004 Route des Lucioles, BP 93, 06902 Sophia Antipolis Cedex, France